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T O P I C R E V I E W

heng44

Today's choice was easy: Apollo 8 was launched 45 years ago on December 21, 1968. Not only was this the beginning of an historic mission to the moon, but it also marked the beginning of my lifelong interest in spaceflight. Merry Christmas to all of you on the Good Earth!

Ed Hengeveld

East-Frisian

Merry Christmas to you, Ed, and to all the others, cSpacers.

Chariot412

And from all of us on the good earth...Merry Christmas to you, too.

mach3valkyrie

I got up way early to watch the launch on TV. It was Christmas vacation during 6th grade so I watched a lot of that mission. Good call on the photo choice this week.

Merry Christmas to all!

paulushumungus

Wonderful - Apollo 8 is my favourite mission.

randy

Thanks for the memories Ed. Merry Christmas to all!

Michael Davis

I feel blessed to have been just old enough to remember this day and the Apollo 8 mission. It changed everything. 1968 was a very bad year in general. There were the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. There was also weekly news reports of 100s of American casualties in Vietnam combined with constant stories of campus riots. This launch on that day and the following mission gave many of us children hope. I feel lucky to have watched the launch and the “Genesis” broadcast live. It changed my life and gave me a set of heroes that I still look up to until this day.

bobslittlebro

I also got up early to watch the launch on T.V. and I believe it was a Saturday morning. Yes, brings back memories.

onesmallstep

Ditto Apollo 8 being my introduction to spaceflight in 1968, together with Kubrick's '2001'. I was young but what impressed me the most was all of the world stopping during a terrible year and pausing to reflect on what man can do with the 'better angels' of his nature.

mikepf

I don't remember the launch, but I do remember the lunar broadcast. That is my earliest datable space memory. Thanks for posting!

dss65

The memory of Apollo 8, and especially the "Genesis broadcast," still gives me goose bumps every time. I hope it always will.

SaturnV

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

Space Emblem Art

Forty five years ago on Christmas Eve I was 13 yrs old, in 8th grade on Christmas vacation and suffering the intestinal Hong Kong flu. While the flu was miserable it never detered me from watching the TV coverage of Apollo 8. While the black & white TV quality was, compared to now, poor quality, the reading of Genesis was a stroke of genius. If ever there was a proper setting for reading those passages that was it.